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As a West Side kid fooling around with boxing gloves, I had been, for some reason of temperament, more interested in dodging a blow than in striking one.

I've had boxing gloves on since before I could walk and been in gyms all of my life.

I'm a professional fighter and like most professional fighters I have had difficulties with my hands in the past.

I'm the kind of person that if I try to throw it hard, it doesn't come out as good. So my whole thought process is to stay smooth, stay on top of the ball, and just get my hand out in front.

Gold Gloves are nice to have people mention. They're basically saying you're a pretty good defensive player along with everything else. But I was about the offensive side.

When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

When I was younger, growing up in Pittsburgh, they had a 'Golden Gloves' program through the Boys and Girls Club. In Pittsburgh, New York, Philly, Washington, those areas, I would go and spar at competitions.

The good thing is I don't put the ball in my right hand and I'm predominantly left-handed when I'm running the ball. I just have to take care of the football and even if I have two hands that are 100 percent, I still can't turn the ball over. It's just something I have to mentally prepare for, and I think I'm strong enough to do that.

I struggled quite a long time with my backhand, which was one of my best weapons before my surgery. It took me a long time until I regained full confidence in it again and only tried to keep the ball in play at the start of the '09 season.